Medieval to Monet: French Paintings in the Wadsworth Atheneum will showcase more than seventy-five objects from our very extensive collection of French art works. Works in this collection were first acquired in 1898, and the building of the collection continues today. The earliest pieces are miniatures from a medieval Apocalypse; the most recent are twentieth-century Post-Impressionist works by Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Gauguin, Redon, Vuillard and Bonnard.

The seventeenth-century is represented by the works of Le Nain, Poussin, Claude, Vouet, Stella, and Le Sueur; the eighteenth-century by Boucher, Robert, Coypel, Chardin, de Troy, Greuze, Trinquesse and Vigée Le Brun. The nineteenth century, the most varied and rich portion of the collection, ranges from works by earlier masters like Ingres, Delacroix, Gericault, Corot and Courbet to academic and realistic works by Bouguereau, Vibert, Ribot, and Bonvin to Impressionist works by Manet, Degas, Monet, Pissarro and Renoir.